Budget consultation meeting at Nairn

The Highland Council concludes its budget consultation at a meeting of its Nairn Ward Forum on Wednesday 30 June.

The meeting, the last in a series of 14 public consultations, is being held at Rosebank Primary School Hall and begins at 7 pm. The meeting will be chaired by the Provost of Nairn, Councillor Laurie Fraser.

The theme of the meeting is “The implications of the budget for The Highland Council” and in attendance to outline the challenges and respond to questions will be Convener Sandy Park,  Budget Leader David Alston, Chief Executive, Alistair Dodds, and Depute Chief Executive and Director of Finance, Alan Geddes.

They will highlight that having already identified savings of £24 million, they still need to bridge a gap of £36 million in 2011-12 and 2012-13.

A budget briefing document has been produced to support the exercise.  It sets out the challenges facing the council and poses some key budget questions.

The consultation will run until the end of June and the Council aims to make decisions on the budget savings in the autumn of this year.  In addition, a new Citizens’ Panel is being asked for its views.

Councillor Alston said: “We want to engage with as wide an audience as possible in setting out the unprecedented budget challenges we will face over the coming years and to listen to what the public have to say about the options we will be presenting. The response from earlier meetings and our budget blog has been very constructive and will help shape our thinking.”
In order to get the most out of these meetings, there will be several group discussions and the session will end with a general question and answer session.

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